Applying for a loan can be traumatic. This is especially so when applying for larger loans, such as mortgage loans. The consumer must first collect a wide variety of information, make that information available to any person that has an interest in helping a borrower obtain funds for any reason. Such persons are loan originator or brokers but may also be car dealers, retail establishments and the like (hereinafter collectively “loan facilitators”). Typically, the broker has the consumer sign a permission form allowing the broker to obtain a credit report. Once the credit report is obtained from any one or all of three credit bureaus, that credit report is viewed by the broker and sometimes made available to the consumer for review.
The difficulty with credit reports is that form and format of these reports may be incomprehensible to the normal human being. They are difficult to read, and frequently contain adverse and erroneous information. Any such adverse or erroneous information can affect the ability of the consumer to obtain a loan in the first place.
If a credit report has negative or adverse and erroneous information, the loan facilitator may request information from the consumer regarding such adverse or erroneous information. If such information cannot be eliminated from the credit report in a meaningful fashion, the consumer may have their loan rejected by the broker, or may be forced to go to a lender who deals with individuals with less than perfect credit.
When dealing with a lender of this type, typically the “deal” that is offered to a consumer is not as advantageous as one that would be offered if the consumer had good credit.
A second difficulty with this process for situations where credit is not perfect, is that the consumer or indeed the broker himself may not know all of the sources or all of the lenders who would be willing to make loans to individuals with less than perfect credit. By simply going to a single lender, the best deal that the consumer might otherwise obtain will not be available.
If the consumer determines that there is adverse or erroneous information on the credit history, the consumer is then faced with the difficulty of how to correct the adverse or erroneous information. Most consumers do not know the rules and regulations associated with correcting adverse or erroneous information on a credit report. Therefore, any system that can assist a consumer in this fashion will be welcome indeed.
However, in the event that certain adverse credit that is reported is in fact correct, consumers still deserve the best possible deal on loan letters to be offered. Therefore, any system that helps in obtaining the best deal possible would also provide a major benefit to consumers.
What would therefore be useful is any system and method that allows a consumer to receive credit information in a readable and user-friendly fashion. Such a system would allow a consumer to correct any adverse or erroneous information in a manner that adheres to the rules for making such corrections. Further, such a system would allow a consumer to receive a variety of offers, all of which are designed to have a competitive environment for obtaining the best offer of a loan for a consumer.